A Costly Error

Milwaukee baseball fans opened their paper on the morning of May 2, 1948 to find this review of a notable play from the previous day's game. The Brewers, to quote the Journal, got "drubbed" 10-1 by the first-place Indianapolis Indians.

Here's where it went wrong for the Brews on that sunny Saturday afternoon, preserved in newsprint:

MISS TWIN KILLING — The Brewers missed a chance to pull out of a hole in the seventh inning in their game with Indinapolis yesterday at Borchert Field. The bases were loaded when Cully Rikard hit a roller to "Ike" Ozark at first. The latter threw to Cacther (sic) Paul Burris in an effort to cut off Jack Cassini at the plate, but his toss was high and bounced out of Burris' glove, allowing Cassini to score. Rikard is shown running to first, Frank Kalin heading into second and Ted Beard about to round third. The Tribe finished with five runs in the inning.

Sentinel Photo by Frank Stanfield

Roadmap photos like this were the Sportscenter highlights of their era:

One bad toss to home can blow an entire game. Had Ozark not floated the ball to Burris, the Brewers could have turned two, and maybe Lefty Pyle would have gotten out of the inning.

Also interesting to Milwaukee baseball fans is a glimpse of future Brave Johnny Logan covering second.

Logan played five seasons with the Brews, 1948 through 1952 (spending part of each of those last two with the parent Boston Braves). He would finish his career with thirteen seasons in the National League and a World Championship ring on his finger.

On that day in May of 1948, however, Logan was a rookie just two weeks past his twenty-first birthday, trying to work his way up the farm system ladder, and probably considered himself lucky not to have been actually involved in this particular error.